FIRST ‘‘ ENGLISH TREATISE ON FISHING” 55 
The earliest description of fishing in the English language 
meets us in The Colloguy of Aelfric, A.D. 995, which Skeat first 
brought to notice and first “‘ Englished ’’ in The Oldest English 
Treatise on Fishing.! This takes the form of a short dialogue 
introduced into the Colloguy written by Aelfric, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, for the purpose of teaching his pupils Latin, and 
therefore written in Anglo-Saxon with a Latin translation 
beneath. “It is arranged as a conversation between the 
master and his pupil; the latter in turns figuring as huntsman, 
fisherman, falconer.’’ 
The length of the Colloguwy, even of the fishing portion, 
prevents inclusion here, but the pupil’s objection to fishing in 
the sea, ‘‘ because rowing is troublesome to me,” and to going 
a-whaling, ‘‘ because I had rather catch a fish I can kill than 
one that can, with one stroke, kill both me and my comrades,” 
strikes me as well taken and pertinent. 
A poem by Piers of Fulham, written about 1420 (the 
original MS. of which can be seen at Trinity College, Cambridge) 
claims next our notice. The author, judging from Hartshorne’s 
rendering, fully justifies the description of him as a somewhat 
pessimistic angler. He seems to have anticipated De Quincey’s 
“fishing is an unceasing expectation and a perpetual disap- 
pointment.”” He fully appreciated its difficulties and dis- 
appointments, but clearly possessed some sportsmanlike 
instincts, as the following, among other, verses show 2 :— 
“ And ete the olde fishe, and leve the yonge, 
Though they moore towgh be uppon the tonge.” 
A Latin book Déialogus creaturarum optime moralizatus 
was published in 1480; a translation about 1520 styles it 
The Dialogues of Creatures Moralysed. This very rare work, 
which I have found fully dealt with from an Angler’s point of 
view only by Dr. Turrell, furnishes the earliest known illustra- 
tion of an angler fishing with a float. 
Next in date, and last to be noticed here, comes the famous 
1 The Angler’s Note-Book, st series (1880), p. 76. 
2 Cf. Turrell, op. cit., 4. In “and with angle hookys”’ in Piers, Mr. 
Marston, op. cit.,2, sees ‘‘ probably the earliest known reference to angling in 
English.” 
